Tuesday, September 14, 2010

I Don't Want to Talk About It

The Yankees are playing crippled, but they kept the game tied at zero for 10+ innings. Granted, we had CC starting and our bullpen has largely been consistently good, so no surprises there I guess.

The Bad

Losing a 0-1 game is never good. It hurts. Our offense is struggling. Not having Swish, Gardner, or Posada/A-Rod on a regular basis doesn't help. But this team should be able to score one run in a game where only Swish and Gardner are missing. Sure, those guys tend to see a lot of pitches, but still. Sure, David Price was pitching. But still. One run guys. One run.

The Ugly

Gardner was picked off trying to steal third to end the top of the 10th. Everyone knows you never make the third out at third base. The worst part, however, was Gardner's explanation after the game.

"So I'm taking my lead from second, when suddenly, completely out of nowhere, this wasp appears. Those things don't lose their stinger man, they can sting you multiple times. You could die if you're allergic. So I just bolted. Next thing I know, the ump is all, 'You're out.' And I'm all pleading like, 'There was a wasp.' Umpires are d*%ks."

5 comments:

How did a wasp get in there? It's an enclosed domed stadium? First the bugs in Cleveland 3 years ago, now this.

As mad as I was at Gardner, the real culprit last night was Girardi. He let Logan pitch to just 1 hitter. Screw the lefty-righty matchup: If a guy is pitching well, and his arm isn't hurting, leave him in! In the old days, a pitcher like CC would have struck that guy out in the bottom of the 11th, instead of allowing the injury-time goal. (It was 1-0, after all.) It wasn't Mitre's fault, or even Gaudin's for messing up in the 10th to get that batter up in the 11th: It was Girardi's.

Of course, post-2001 Joe Torre would have brought in Kyle Farnsworth and lost the game in the 9th. Pre-2001 Torre would have had Stanton and Nelson to lead up to Rivera. But Girardi, so often a great manager these last 2 years, blew it last night.

The problem with Girardi is that his greatest strength is also his greatest curse. He's always well prepared, knows the match-ups, and plays the percentages. That said, it sometimes gets him into trouble and costs us games. He wins more often than not so you accept it, but it is frustrating nonetheless.

I think he did the opposite of playing the percentages. He should have known that in a tied extra inning game, the visiting team is more likely to lose and needs to rely on its best pitchers. He was too quick to put the game in the hands of the two worst relievers in the pen, including one who had barely pitched at all in the last month.